India-Bangladesh border talks to begin February 16

The twice postponed Director General (DG) level border talks between India and Bangladesh are now expected to be held here from February 16 with the issue of fencing and rise in infiltration attempts post the regime change in that country being a major subject of discussion.

A delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh is scheduled to hold discussions with their counterparts Border Security Force (BSF) between February 16 and 19 as part of the 55th edition of these bi-annual talks.

This will be the first top-level discussion between the two forces post the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, 2024.

The engagements of the two sides are being worked upon, official sources told PTI.

The dates for these talks were twice postponed last year, they said.

The issues related to objections raised by Bangladesh over the construction of “agreed upon” single-row fence at about 92 identified patches covering about 95.8 km of the overall 4,096 km international border between the two neighbours is expected to be taken up during this meeting with “prominence”, the sources said.

The joint of record of discussions called JRD, that is signed by the chiefs of the BSF and the BGB at the end of these talks, will be framed on the basis of these discussions, they said.

Obstruction to the work of fence construction on this border was underlined last week after India followed by Bangladesh summoned the High Commissioners of the either country in their national capitals.

Bangladesh expressed “deep concern” over the “activities” of the BSF vis-a-vis fence erection and border killings when they called Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma in Dhaka over the weekend.